Red Slime?

[Tim Howe]

My name is Tim and I have a 75 gallon reef with a red slime problem.
I had a 58 gallon reef for about 5 years with good success. Last January I decided to upgrade. I went to a 75 gallon. I replaced the crushed coral with new when I changed over because I was told that it needed to be replaced every 5 yrs or so. I also added about 20 lbs. of new live rock and a Frog spawn and some polyps. I already had a cup coral, a colt, some mushrooms, and a plate coral.
The tank apparently went in to a cycle and 4 weeks after the change corals started dying. Shortly thereafter the red slime showed up. To help here are some pertinent facts about my tank:

• I have a 4000HH pump which provides 960 gph flow.
• Lighting consists of 2-75 watt metal halides and 2- 130 watt actinic power compacts.
• I always use RO and usually replace 10% a week. I use Reef Crystals, although for the last six months of my 58 gal. I tried Red Sea Coral pro for a time

Since the outbreak I have tried several remedies:

• Red Slime remover several times with no effect.
• A red slime filter with the erythromyacin.
• I have added 2 Koralia pumps to insure good flow throughout the tank.
• I added a chiller and keep the temperature at 75 degrees.
• I tore the tank down, twice, scrubbing all of the rock and cleaning the substrate, only to have the red slime return within 2 weeks.

All of these attempts yielded no results. I posted a thread in December and through discussions and research decided to try a phosphate reactor. I know that that hasn't hurt, but I'm not sure haw much it helped.
I talked to a dealer in December and he suggested stopping with the water changes, figuring that the tank never fully finished the cycle due to the amont of water changes I had been performing.I continue to test my water and here are the results from this morning:

• Calcium- 580 ppm
• KH- 10 *dkh or 179 ppm KH
• Phosphate- 0
• Nitrates- 0

Does anyone have any suggestions as to my next course of action.

 

[Jenna09]

I had red slime problems and found it was usually associated with my light bulbs getting older.

Jenna

 

[PRC]

Why is your calcium so high? Are you dosing calcium?

How long are you leaving your lights on? Some times red/slime Cyanobacteria is due to inadequate flow and long light periods.

Are you sure that it's not diatoms that you're seeing? Which is a normal part of the cycle.

Suck the majority of it out manually and do a complete blackout of the tank for 3-4 days..That should help..

You corals and other livestock will be fine with no light for a few days.

 

[Dana42078]

I have a lil red slime in my substrate too. I just changed my light bulbs and changed the flow. Also tried sucking up what i could. my lights are on for 12hrs. 10am to 10pm. Gunna see what happens. I havent had any issues with losing livestock tho. Waiting game for me to see if it goes away.

 

[Ogaawd]

I LOVE THE SMELL OF CYANO IN THE MORNING!
Hi Tim, first off deep breath! let the stress go lol, this isn't hard to fix.
Chemicals are hit and miss, antibiotic's can make it stronger.
Tank is a bit deep for compacts and they go off spectrum real fast, look into a retro kit for T5ho's
How old are the MH's and what are they? brand and k rating.
You have ro, do you have a di canister on it? di is as or more important than the ro part.
Do you have a sump? do you use a sump sock?
Your test results of 0 mean nothing, the cyano is converting everything.
Meanwhile... everyday is siphon day, get some 1/4 '' tubing and a bucket, siphon off as much as you can every day and replace the water with new mixed.
Get a plastic turkey baster and blast whats left off the rock and corals, be sure to blast the rock at least every other day.
If you have a sump sock change it the morning after blasting the rock, got to get rid of the slime! (the slime is not the cyano, its a waste product of the bacteria and as it decomposes it becomes more food.)
If you don't have a sump sock maybe you can get a canister or hob filter with some floss to catch the muck.
This is a start, pictures of your set up and equipment will help us.
As to cycling? does not matter to cyano one way or the other, when the reds gone we will deal with the cycle

 

[Tim Howe]

Thank you for all of your responses and sharing your experience. I will try to answer all of your questions.
First, my power compact flourescents are less than 4 months old. Someone had already mentioned the change in the color spectrum. The metal halides ( I haven't had a chance to look at the brand and rating yet ) are old. I bought the lights used when I set the tank up and they were in the fixture. Replacing those is now a priority.
I dose the tank during water changes with a 2 part system of calcium and alkalinity. I also use purple up every other day. I had been told that if I can get the coraline algae to start growing it will overrun the cyano.
Lights are on 10 hrs a day.
I buy my RO from a dealer that I have frequented for about 15 yrs now. I'm not sure of his set up.
I do have a sump, but I don't use a sump sock. Is this something that I should look into?
I tried posting pictures when I started the thread, but for some reason every time I tried to attach them it said there was something wrong with the server. I will try again later.
Again, thank you all for your kind words and help. Ogaawd, I will start the process that you suggested and see where that goes.( Oh, by the way, love your profile photo. one of my favorite movies)

 

[Ogaawd]

I used to be TIM but gave it up lol, sounds like you have a plan, as for the sock? put one in for a few days and you'll wonder how you lived without it, the muck that gets caught is amazing.
adding 2 part at water change time is not ideal, new mixed water can have elevated C02 levels and will mess with the results, if its well mixed,at temp and 24 hrs old it a good thing to adjust it to your tanks levels, on the whole you want to test the tank and adjust as required. Purple up is not a great product, if you want coraline just get a razor blade and scrape some off one of your rocks into the tank, for good coraline you need to maintain your mag and alk levels, I think purpleup is pretty hefty in mag however the old "don't add what you cant test for" should apply

 

[Dana42078]

I'm going to try a red slime treatment. Cutting my lights down to 10 hrs a day. Syphioning out the red slime with airline tubing, and replacing the water I took out (small water change). Then a 48hr blackout. I'm hoping this will work.

 

[Tim Howe]

I guess it has something to do with the new camera. I can't upload pictures from it.
Here are some pictures of what I am dealing with. Do I go ahead and do a significant water change and take the rock out and remove the algae from it?

 

[Ogaawd]

hmm, thats quite a load, lets revist your equipment first, what do you have in tank for flow?
how much and what are you feeding? do you have a skimmer?
you need an ro/di unit of your own, seriously Ive seen LFS's put tap water in their ro for sale water, at this point the only way to tell is to check their water with a TDS meter.
I at this point would shut down the MH as they are of questionable age, I would siphon out the red and only replace what water is used until you can guarantee the water, turkey baster the rocks once or twice a day and get a couple of filter socks working
is there a cannister filter or wet dry system? some pictures of the sump would be good.
There is something fueling this and it shouldn't be hard to get to it with a bit more info

 

[sen5241b]

I've used Red Slime Remover sparingly and it got rid of it ! But yeah the long term fix is to get trates down.

 

[Tim Howe]

I think I misunderstood you earlier. I don't have a sump, but a normal wet/dry filter. The primary pump is a Quiet One 4000 HH which boasts 960 gph. I also have 2 koralia pumps in the tank to fill any dead spots.
I feed one cube of mysis shrimp once a day. Every 3 or 4 days I put in 1/2 cube of coral food. I do have a protein skimmer working.
I do have a couple of canister filters that a freind gave me when she replaced the filters on her cichlid tank.

 

[Ogaawd]

ahh, thaw and rinse the mysis its probably packed in phosphate as a preservative, what is this coral food?
Have you ever cleaned the bio balls? they will collect detritus and produce nitrates like crazy, looks like you have enough live rock to not need the balls so you could remove a handfull every 3 or 4 days and let the cats play with them.
The cannister filters have a couple of uses, holding short term media like carbon, 4 days old its a bio filter so you must wash it out, scruntch it up,wash again use for 3 or 4 days and throw it, find a way to fit one out with filterfloss and hook it up on the display, this will help you when blowing off the rock, let it run a couple of hours and take it out for a good wash. Looks like you have an old school setup for a fowler and its not going to make it, this will take a bit of work and time but its not a major problem

 

[Ogaawd]

whats in the reactor?

 

[Tim Howe]

Carbon and phosban. The directions call for about 5 inches of media, but the phosban called for a specific amount. I used the prescribed amount of phosban and filled the rest with carbon. I've had it on for about 3 weeks and replaced the media after 2 weeks. Whats a fowler?

 

[Ogaawd]

fowler... fish only with live rock

 

[Tim Howe]

Never heard that term before. I've turned off the HMs and will start a clean up program later this week. I will keep posting as time goes by. Thanks again for your patience and all of the help.

 

[Ogaawd]

never a problem Tim, keep posting

 

[troybuckle]

I have just recently had this problem. Things that can cause this are:
Overfeeding and decaying food.
Lights on for too long
Insufficient flow.
If I were you I would try:
Get a ro/di filter, if you don’t have one already. You can get one from filter direct for under $200
I would remove and canister filters and HOB filters and defiantly remove the bio balls and invest in a reef octopus protein skimmer (When the red slime starts to die off it makes a lot of mess, the skimmer will pull it out). I have yet to hear of anything good coming from these bio balls, I would bet that the balls are feeding the red slime somehow. Use the area where the bio balls are for a fuge.
Stop using the Purple up, you never know the red slime might be getting something from that that is feeding it as well.
Increase and change your flow. Add another powerhead if you can, but aim one at the surface of the water and another towards the bottom of the tank.
Siphon out as such of the red slime as you can when you do a water change, and add the red slime remover. Proceed to do a 72 hour blackout by covering the tank in a dark blanket, and do not feed during this time. Once the blackout is over do another water change.
Cut your lights down to 10hours for antics and 8 hours for daylights and decrees the amount you feed.
All that being said, you red slime looks very different then what I had (See Attached Pics) from the pics you posted above it almost looks like a red coralline.
Well that the best advice I can think off anyway, good luck I feel your pain.

 

[Tim Howe]

Okay, I'm running out to by supplies to convert the filter to a sump system. Filter sock and some plexiglass to modify the filter areas. Should I remove all of the bio balls at once or remove handfulls each day?